How savvy is your company in International Marketing? 10 clues to get your International Marketing act right for 2010

We had the opportunity to Interview Marieke de Mooij Ph.D. (Netherlands), the author of several publications on the influence of culture on marketing and advertising. Her book Global Marketing and Advertising, Understanding Cultural Paradoxes (third edition, 2010), Sage Publications (USA and UK) is used by practitioners and universities worldwide. A more specialized book is Consumer Behavior and Culture. Consequences for Global Marketing and Advertising (2003), Sage Publications (USA and UK).

Excerpts from the indepth telephone Interview between Sanjoo Malhotra from itim and Marieke de Mooij, edited by Jerry Vastano.

1. You said that global advertising is a true myth of the past century? What do you mean?

The myth began as a result of an article published by Harvard Professor Ted Levitt (“The Globalization of Markets”) in the early 1980’s in which he promoted the standardization of marketing and advertising and offering identical products worldwide. This was based on the assumption that there are universal values.

The myth has to do with this assumed existence of universal values and emotions. Human values, attitudes, the concept of self, motives, emotions are all culture-bound. When presented in an abstract way, they are seemingly universal - such as love, a mother’s love, happiness, and health. However, how these values are actually expressed differs on a cultural level. People have different associations with what may be the same abstract term. The manner in which people express love, what makes people happy or how they deal with their health (actively/passively) varies with culture. For example, Americans are highly concerned with happiness or instant gratification. Instant gratification is less important for Asians and the value of happiness has lower priority.

read the entire Interview here.

Going local with National Geographic

AL: National Geographic has begun publishing local language editions and has been extremely successful. Would you say the decision was made too early or too late?

MK: The idea to start the local language editions is 10 years old. To a certain extent, National Geographic was one of the innovators in this field, because no other magazine published local language editions before 1995, so they had to discover the whole technology and the organisation skills to do it.

AL: So the answer to that question could be “too early” if they were the innovators…So what do you personally perceive as cultural differences?.

MK: From my point of view, there are two sets of cultural differences as I understand them. First, different cultures see things in different ways. I mean that we can imagine that some Europeans can see the WWII in a different way from other Europeans. Second, cultural differences are strongly linked to different values. For example, there is a long tradition in Eastern Europe that people rely strongly on the state. They think that the state is there to solve most of their problems. On the other hand, in the Anglo-Saxon tradition, the state is not seen as something that should interfere with life of individuals and individuals should take care of themselves. The reasons for these two differences are, of course, historical and very deep. Another issue is egalitarian values. They are stronger in Eastern than in Western Europe. So when one conducts business, all these differences should be taken into account.

read the entire Interview here.

itim-ers in the News: Celebrating and leveraging our diversity

Transitions Optical undertook an itim intercultural management training to better understand the underlying meaning of words and behaviors, when dealing with colleagues from other cultures, in order to be more effective and avoid misunderstandings in their professional lives.

Catherine Tikhomiroff the Marketing Director explained the reasons behind the need:” as the central marketing team for the EMEA region, we are often faced with various challenges that are linked to the complexities of our multicultural organization. In the EMEA region we deal with over 20 different languages and about 25 different cultures, so sometimes it is not surprising that we have” hiccups” in communication and misunderstanding of intentions which can affect the efficiency of our business”

Valérie designed a programme that was composed of two days of sessions in Paris that were a month apart to allow time for reflection and learning. The format was a mix of theory and practice, with well selected games and exercises to drive home the most important messages. Throughout the training, the participants from Transitions Optical, were constantly encouraged to think about different situations that had upset or annoyed them and see whether there was a cultural explanation.

The results of the training were very positive showing 100% overall satisfaction, 100% interest in subject matter, 100% were satisfied with the level of personalization and 100% satisfaction was scored on the possibility to apply this on everyday working lives. A quote from a participant states that” I think the 5-D Model is very interesting in terms of giving us the main cultural differences and will help us to improve relationships with our colleagues”. This was the goal Catherine Tikhomiroff had set for her team.

itim-ers in the News: The other side of the story

The first part of the Interview was based on Salvador explaining the meaning of culture, the background of Professor Geert Hofstede and the 5-D Model. In the second part of the interview, Salvador brings up the very important issue of the cultural challenges for Latin American countries when benchmarking management practices. Countries like Mexico and Brazil normally blindly copy the management practices developed in the USA and Western Europe. The local universities teach these management theories and practices to their students. The students learn to apply them with the expectation to be as successful as the countries of origin (USA/Western Europe) of those practices.

This blind copying of foreign developed management practices, ends up costing the country twice the education of their managers. They first have to learn in the University the US and European management practices and then they have to be re-trained at work with the functional local management practices.

Salvador highlights and suggests the need for countries like Brazil to create their very own National Academy of Management, with Brazilian scholars that study the successful organizations in Brazil. This academy would then develop theories and management practices in accordance with the Brazilian culture. Just as the US Academy of Management does.

This national Academy of Management would provide the management knowledge (books, resources etc) that would then be used in Brazilian universities. In the interview, Salvador further suggests that a discussion about the challenges to implement empowerment in Brazil should be taken up. He also suggested that they should also create definitions about organizational culture and how organizational values are developed.

itim-ers in the News: Association of Business Communicators in Brazil

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itim-ers in the News

The project stems from an authentic request from the Dmitrov Duma members. The project is seen as a strengthening and deepening of the strong ties built up in the last 15 years between the two districts. The Dmitrov Duma members have voiced a wish to learn from the Dutch way of coalition politics. Their objective is to create and develop a stable political situation in which to lead Dmitrov through a transformative period.

We have been asked by the Province of Flevoland to facilitate the dialogue and development process of a method which is congruous with the political system in the Dimitrov District. The project will start in July 2009 and will end in the summer of 2010.

CultureGPS

CultureGPS Professional is an intelligent and easy-to-use iPhone tool that enables you to analyse behavior differences in intercultural encounters and to predict to a certain degree, which interactions evolve when people from different nationalities meet and work together.

For further details and to download this great tool, please visit www.culturegps.com

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